


Snacks at the Laundromatt

by titC



Category: Daredevil (TV), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Cameo: Jessica Jones, Gen, M/M, Other, cameo: karen page, possible triggers in the end notes, sort of poly because Venom, the title is not misspelled, they're both disasters; and then there's Venom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:26:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28368360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titC/pseuds/titC
Summary: Eddie hates, he really hates laundromats. He also doesn't really have a choice about it, so he’s got to man up and just, you know. Find a quarter somewhere. Or else he can’t wash this load, and he’s down to his last blanket. Everything else is in the washer now; he’s trying to convince himself that a ratty wool toga is dignified but he knows better. He doesn’t look like a classy(cal) Roman Emperor of yore, nope. He’s not even rocking the hobo chic look here.I don’t understand clothes.Eddie sighs. “We’ve talked about this before, V.”We have?What an asshole, but it probably takes one to know one.
Relationships: Eddie Brock & Venom Symbiote, Eddie Brock/Matt Murdock
Comments: 28
Kudos: 82
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo, DDE’s 2021 New Year’s Day Exchange, Marvel Fluff Bingo





	Snacks at the Laundromatt

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spacebrock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacebrock/gifts).



> Written for the prompts: _Character A is stuck at the laundromat, half-clothed, while Character B walks in with their own load to do_ and, SORT OF, _Body swap_.
> 
> Also fills my MarvelFluffBingo prompt _Caught red-handed_ for the final scene :D and my BadThingsHappenBingo prompt _Dissociation_... in probably not the intended meaning of the word, but i promise there is whumping ;-)
> 
> As always, many many things to [PixelByPixel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PixelByPixel/pseuds/PixelByPixel) for betaing and handholding ♥

Eddie hates, he really hates laundromats. He also doesn't really have a choice about it, so he’s got to man up and just, you know. Find a quarter somewhere. Or else he can’t wash this load, and he’s down to his last blanket. Everything else is in the washer now; he’s trying to convince himself that a ratty wool toga is dignified but he knows better. He doesn’t look like a classy(cal) Roman Emperor of yore, nope. He’s not even rocking the hobo chic look here.

_I don’t understand clothes._

Eddie sighs. “We’ve talked about this before, V.”

_We have?_

What an asshole, but it probably takes one to know one. Venom winks at him in the mirror above the washer, a quick blink-and-you’ll-miss-it flash that still makes Eddie turn around to check no one’s seen it. They’re alone in the laundromat, but the front is all transparent glass, just so everyone can see Eddie Brock’s skinny ankles between his toga and his trainers. He looks down. Skinny _and_ hairy.

Anyway, this doesn’t solve his problem, which is: missing quarter. His load can’t start, which means no clean clothes, which means making a memorable first in-person impression on his new boss, but the wrong kind of memorable. He’d rather avoid that; he'd like not to start directly with a crash and burn.

Eddie crouches to look under the rows of machines and is moving to kneeling, ass in the air, when the sound of the door makes him jump and fall on his face.

“…hello?” the stranger says slowly.

Nevermind wowing the boss, he’s already nailing his first back-to-New York, human being encounter.

_I thought nailing meant fucking._

“Shut up, V.”

“Um.”

Ah, fuck, the guy. Eddie peels himself off of the cold tiles and stands up. “Sorry, was talking to myself,” he says as he turns around. And does a double take. The guy looks good; Venom keeps whispering _nailingnailingnailingnailing_ in his head but Eddie ignores him. “Rehearsing my job interview later this morning.”

“With ‘shut up’?” But he doesn’t sound offended; if anything he’s amused. “I’m Matt.” He grins and extends his hand, slightly off-center and –

“You’re blind. No! I mean, you’re Matt. I’m Eddie.” _Smooth_. Yes, whatever, foot in mouth, look, he hasn’t had coffee yet, alright? He grabs the hand, pumps it, drops it like a hot potato. The boss-meet later can’t go worse than now, right?

“I am both Matt and blind, yes.” His eyebrows rise over the glasses. Red: original. They don’t look like your average blind person glasses, or at least not Eddie’s idea of them. But what does he know? Nothing.

“I know nothing,” he says. Eddie Brock: a man of words, please hire him to write smart articles and do investigative journalism. “Pretend I didn’t say that.”

Matt tilts his head to the side, still smirking. Well, at least he can’t see the blanket, right? “All right. Is there any free washer? Mine broke and…” He taps his cane against the bench and once he’s situated it, drops a gym bag on it. _He’s_ not wearing a blanket; he’s wearing people clothes, a suit and a white shirt. And a tie. Eddie hasn’t worn a tie in long enough he’s, in fact, not sure he still owns one.

“Uh, sure. They’re all empty, in fact.”

“Aren’t you using one? I can’t hear it.”

“I’m… yeah, I am. Can’t start it yet; I thought I had the change but…” And he’s back to square one: can’t wash his clothes, wearing a blanket, and now with the added bonus of making a fool of himself for his first human interaction of the day. To a good-looking guy who is composed and dresses well, for extra humiliation. Eddie feels like a trash panda, in comparison.

_What’s a panda?_

“Cute animal with fur glasses; likes dumpsters.”

“…excuse me?”

“A panda! A trash panda. It’s me; I am a trash panda.”

“Trash pandas don’t go to laundromats; I don’t think they even wear clothes.”

_You’re not wearing clothes now, Eddie._

“I’m not wearing clothes now.”

“You’re… naked?”

“No! No no no, I’m not!” Venom is cackling in his head, and Eddie is feeling _murderous_. “I’m wearing a… toga.”

“A toga.”

“Okay, fine, a blanket.”

“And the rest is in the washer.”

“Yes.”

That you can’t start because you don’t have the change.”

“Right.”

“How much do you need?”

“I don’t need charity!”

_You do, if you insist on this clothes washing thing._

Ugh.

“What about a job?”

“Uh?”

Matt adjusts his glasses, looking rueful and charming and _He’s your type, Eddie_.

“Well, I can’t read the instructions, so I’m going to need help with my own load.”

“Oh! I can do that.”

_Nailnailnailnail_

Matt is thankfully unaware of Venom’s commentary, so Eddie helps with his laundry, and gets the desperately-needed quarter in return.

“Want some coffee? There’s a decent coffee shop round the corner.”

“Um…” Well, yes, but also… is he asking him out on a date? Right after shoving dirty socks in a washer? Man, the dating landscape’s really changed since he was last on the scene. Or maybe it’s just New York-style dating, and he’s forgotten? Or, perhaps, the guy is really into domesticity? Eddie remembers that, back when he was living with Anne. He misses it. Now he’s sharing a body with Venom instead of a home with a smart, beautiful lawyer; it’s different.

“Yeah, I can get us some coffee and bring it back; I’m not sure you want to be out and about in your… toga.”

“Oh, haha. Yes. Toga. Coffee!”

_You’re not going to nail him, Eddie. I could take the helm; what do you say?_

“We’re not shoving him against a dryer to have our wicked way with him in front of god and all of New York.” Shit!

The guy smirks. “Is this still job interview rehearsal?”

“Uh, a song. Stuck in my ear; you know how it is.”

Somehow, Matt still doesn't look offended. Surprised, yes, but he’s not yet turning Eddie down. Not that Eddie has made any real overtures, but… anyway.

“So, uh, yes? The coffee, I mean. I’ll pay you back once I’m decent again; I’ll go to an ATM.”

“No need; I’ll be right back.”

And he just taps his way out, smooth and confident and not a hot, hot mess. Well, he’s hot, but he’s not a mess. That ass though? Real hot. Yup. Eddie’s never gonna tap it, because Matt looks like a real class act and anyway how do you tell someone that you’re sharing a body with an alien parasite from outer space who eats people when it’s feeling peckish?

Yeah, you don’t. So.

“I’m not going to nail him, V.”

_You like him. You haven’t gotten laid in a while._

“What’s it to you anyway?”

_You’re my host. It makes you feel good; therefore it is good for me._

“Right, well. Didn't make the right first impression, no thanks to you.”

_I’m helpful. I’m giving you advice._

“You’re not giving me advice; you’re chanting _nailnailnail_. That’s not how you get someone to sleep with you.”

_How would I know? You haven’t –_

“Yes, I _am_ aware, thanks for the pep talk. Shut up now; he’s back!” With coffee, Eddie’s all for coffee and not at all for dwelling on why he left San Francisco, thank you very much.

He’s also back with muffins, so Eddie forgives Matt for asking if he _nailed it_ with the food. He can’t have heard him talk to Venom earlier, so it’s just… coincidence, right? Also, Eddie might be developing a little crush on the guy.

Just a small one.

Look, the guy brought food and coffee; what else can anyone ask for?

( _That ass, Eddie._

Shut up, V.)

Eddie leaves the laundromat fed, caffeinated, with clean _and_ dry clothes, and a crush on this Matt guy, who’s a lawyer. A _lawyer_. Oh, the irony. He left San Francisco because of a lawyer, too, and what does he do next? Find another one, also smart, also hot, also nice. He brought him coffee, for fuck’s sake, and while that butt might be giving Eddie ideas the coffee is giving him feelings.

_You’re just a sucker for kindness, Eddie._

“Yeah, yeah, I’m a loser, rub it in.” He might have a reputation as a rabid attack dog when on the job, but when not… yeah, not so much. “You said we were both losers; I remember, believe me.”

_I didn’t understand your species as well, back then._

“And you do now?” If by _understand_ Venom means _taste_ and _devour_ , maybe.

_Yes._

Well, Eddie isn’t so sure about that, but whatever. Back to his shitty rental, drop the bag of clean clothes and the blanket, go to the Bulletin. His name is still worth something, especially after exposing the Life Foundation’s methods, so they’re willing to hire him to investigate something smelly between the Mayor’s office, possibly a mob family, and a mysterious real estate company. He’s also going to work on other stuff, but that’s the big thing that he wants to sink his teeth in; petty crime isn’t really his specialty but hey, if that Ellison guy wants him to do short bites about local vigilantes beating up rapists and shooting weapons traffickers, he can do that. Street interviews, maybe night shots, Loch Ness monster-style, of some mysterious figures… a guy’s gotta eat, and after the months he spent one precarious step above homelessness, he’s not going to be too picky as long as no one asks him to kiss ass. He’s got, you know, his dignity.

( _Do you?_

I said shut up, V.)

Ellison introduces Eddie to a Karen Page, who’s freelancing for them when she feels like it (some people are both pretty and lucky, and he’s not saying there’s causality here but… look he’s not _saying_ it, all right?). She apparently Knows People, and can give him pointers and get him up to speed on the city’s landscape and politics these days. He was away in San Francisco for several years, after all.

Contract signed and paperwork wrapped up, she suggests taking him to visit her place of regular employment.

“It’s a good starting point, if you want both a ground-level view of things and a professional take on companies like Trench Real Estate.” She tells him about the Union Allied case, and how Nelson and Murdock went from being her lawyers to her bosses. “And then, well, it’s a long story, but we’ve also represented the Punisher,” _whoa_ , really? “and taken Fisk down a second time, and… okay, we’re here; I’ll let Matt and Foggy tell you more when they can!”

She leads him up a staircase that’s seen better days, and opens a door with a hand-drawn sign on it. He files it all into his Things To Investigate Later brain folder and follows her into a small, but bright room.

“Hi guys! Look who I brought here!”

Two men emerge from what looks like an office; one has chin-length blond hair and a large smile, the other…

“Shit,” Eddie says.

“Eddie?”

“You know each other?”

“We met this morning, at the laundromat.”

“Uh. Well, I’m Foggy Nelson,” blond guy says, hand forward, “and I guess you already know Matt.”

“Hi. Eddie Brock.” Which is more respectable a name than _Foggy_ Nelson, right? “I’m a reporter.”

“And he’s got clean clothes,” Matt adds, and right, cool, fine, be a smartass, it’s not doing anything to Eddie. At all. “I guess the job interview went well?”

“It did, yes, thanks to you; you saved me back there at the laundromat.”

Matt kind of preens (not cute), but his friends roll their eyes.

“Ugh, don’t feed his savior complex!” Karen’s laughing, but all three are a bit too tight around the eyes; there’s something there.

They talk a bit about the work they do here, and the kind of cases they usually work for – evictions, redundancies, getting people who never should have been convicted out of jail, and from time to time going after the Man.

Eddie leaves their office with their numbers, Mrs. Ntamack’s life story and more especially her son’s, whose employer refuses to compensate for his work injury, and even more questions about Nelson, Murdock, and Page.

_Especially Murdock._

Yeah, especially Matt Murdock.

It turns out that even after making your home elsewhere for years, New York has a way of staying in your blood. Eddie’s tiny rental in Hell’s Kitchen isn’t particularly nice, and the neighborhood itself is, uh, _animated_ , but it’s still the New York he knows: he hears five different languages walking past one block, he can smell the best food and the most rotten trash in the same whiff, and he can be as invisible as he needs to be with the right purposeful stride.

Yeah, he’s glad to be back.

But however tiny his apartment is, he’s still got to pay for it, and the vigilantes assignment, while not what he imagined himself doing when he started as a journalist, will at least be fun. He fills his Thermos with coffee, stuffs powerbanks and binoculars in his pockets, and takes to the street. He’s not really concerned about muggers; the good thing about having a parasite ( _Apologize or I’ll eat your liver, Eddie_ ) – about an _alien symbiote_ sharing space with him means never having to worry about petty crime ever again.

 _We could eat muggers_ , Venom suggests.

“We’re not vigilantes, V; we’re reporting on them.”

_But muggers are bad, right? And rapists. And murderers. You said we could eat bad people._

“ _We_ are not eating anyone. _We_ may stop bad things happening if no one else intervenes.”

_Oh, so it’s we when you save humans, but not we when I’m hungry._

“You got it.”

Venom huffs, but it’s not really upset. Not yet, anyway.

The first few nights are uneventful; he gets a few shots of a guy with glowy hands and he gets to meet Jessica Jones, who’s staking out someone and growls at Eddie until he leaves. He likes her style, but he’s clearly not going to get anything from her right now. He mentions the business with the mayor’s office and she rolls her eyes and tells him she’s not a do-gooder and to leave her alone before she kicks him off the fire escape she’s on, so Eddie complies. For now. He’s still getting a feel for the city now, still in the getting-to-know-you-again phase, after all.

He wanders close to the docks to wrap up his night stroll and is about to double back and head home when he hears it. There’s a fight going on, and it sounds brutal; he winces at the sound of a bone snapping and the howl of pain that comes with it. Eddie edges closer and peeks from behind and there they are: a bunch of guys raising baseball bats, knives, and rebar, surrounding… someone. Venom comes out and they step over a man sobbing in pain on the ground, holding his arm; when he sees Venom the sobs turn into a terrified shriek.

“Hi,” they say. Their smile uncovers their pointy, pointy teeth and the acrid smell of urine fills the air. Someone drops what looks like a machete.

“What the fuck is that?” a voice whispers.

“We are Venom. And you are bad, bad people.” Given the state of the lone man somehow still standing in the middle of the circle, those guys were planning murder.

“We’re not!”

“Just making an honest living!”

Now, it smells like shit too. Ah, New York. “We’re looking for an honest meal. You’ll do, human.”

They pick up the one closest and raise it to their face, but the guy in the middle raises fists wrapped with ropes, wobbles a bit before steadying his stance, and says, “No.”

What? “Do you want us to eat you, too?” Venom lick their lips. “We _are_ hungry.”

“Holy shit, I’m outta here!”

“Me too!”

“Fuck yeah!”

In the space of a few seconds, it’s only Venom, the snack in their hand, the wobbly man, and the guy with the broken bones on the ground. Venom drop the snack for now to focus on wobbly man. He’s vaguely familiar, although his features are mostly hidden behind a mask that covers the top half of his face.

“Do we know you?”

“Doubt it.” He tilts his head but doesn’t really seem to look up. Humans usually look up and stare at Venom, but not this one. Interesting. “These men should be arrested and tried, not… eaten.”

“Are you police, human?”

“No.”

“They were beating you up.”

“I was in control of the situation.”

Oh, feisty. A true New Yorker. _We’re not eating him, V_. “You are funny.”

The masked man launches himself at Venom, and they let him land a few punches; he’s agile and strong, for a mere human, but he’s also clearly tired. And injured. They catch him around the waist and lift him up in the air. He’s still struggling against the hold Venom have on him; the dark tendrils wrapped around his body seem to make him angry rather than terrified. He’s kicking and punching, but Venom can’t really feel any of it. The guy’s fearless, though.

“Stop moving; you are hurting yourself.” Why is he not scared?

“I – get down!”

Too late; gunfire erupts behind Venom. It doesn’t really matter; they turn around and grab the shooter with another tendril. He drops the gun, and screams right until Venom swallow him down.

“Hits the spot,” they say. The man at their feet scrambles away, having apparently decided the broken bones would not keep him from running away, but Venom have lost interest. The masked man is more intriguing, and they’re not sure if it’s because he’s not afraid of Venom or because he’s probably one of the vigilantes Eddie is working on. Maybe both. “Who are you?”

The man’s teeth are very white in the night; Venom approve. “They call me Daredevil,” he replies. There’s blood dripping down his chin, but he doesn’t seem bothered.

“We are Venom.”

“So you said.” Cheeky. “Put me down, Venom.”

“We are not going to eat you. Yet.” But they put him down. Venom can be nice; the man tried to warn them about the gun. Not that it matters, but it’s the thought that counts, Eddie likes to say.

“Why did you intervene?”

“We eat bad people.”

“I can’t let you do that.”

It’s almost cute, the way he raises his fists again like he thinks he’s going to fight Venom and win, but they have to leave him be. Eddie wants to talk to him, and he’s not going to get his reporting done as Venom.

They settle for “You can’t stop us,” and they scale the nearest building to get away from the man. Once up there, Eddie gets his binoculars out. He can see Daredevil still standing there, not looking in the direction Venom went but still paying attention somehow. Finally, he shakes his head and limps away, one hand over his side. He stops to pick up batons and slide them in a thigh holster Venom didn’t notice earlier, and melts into the darkness between two buildings.

“Can we track him, V? Quietly.”

They can. Venom’s hearing and smell are very, very good, and they can stay far enough away that Daredevil doesn’t seem to be aware he’s being followed, or maybe he’s too tired to notice. He slips into a building and doesn’t come out, so it looks like the chase is over. Can’t really go after the guy while he’s in his own home, right? But knowing where to find him is a good start; the reporting is going somewhere.

Finally, Venom jump down into an alley and Eddie walks out of it, hands in his pockets and finding no irony whatsoever in the coins rattling there as he walks past the laundromat where he met the cute lawyer. At least he won’t be far from his bed once he’s done, right?

And he ends up face to face with said lawyer, who’s wearing a beat-up coat and a baseball hat and holding his white cane. He’s also carrying a gym bag that looks like it’s seen better days, too.

“Matt?”

“Eddie?”

“Didn’t expect to see any respectable citizen walking around at night.”

“I’m not seeing anyone; are you?” Matt’s lips quirk up; he’s proud of his joke. He’s also got a cut over the eyebrow; like he got punched there and the skin was torn open.

“It’s what, 2 am?” Eddie checks his phone. “2:14. Late.”

“Or early.” Matt gestures behind him. “Couldn't sleep, so I went to punch a bag. There’s an old gym back there; I know the owner and he lets me come in whenever I want; I’ve got a key and everything.”

“You look like the bag won this round.”

“Yeah, sometimes I, uh. Don’t see it coming.” He grins, but Eddie spots some darker stains on his teeth. Blood.

_He was in a fight, Eddie. With other humans._

Yeah, maybe. It’s not making him any less interesting, though. “Want me to walk you home? In case any other bags attack you.”

“Oh, yeah, the bags of Hell’s Kitchen. Real threat.”

“Is that a no?”

Matt tilts his head. It makes him look like a bird, a little. “Doesn’t have to be, but I’m just going to get home and crash in bed tonight. Rain check?”

Eddie isn’t sure if he’s being let down gently, if a door is really left open, or something else; it doesn’t sound like a _No_ but it’s not an enthusiastic _Yes!_ either. “You got my number.” Please call me, he doesn't say.

_Why don’t you take what you want, Eddie?_

Because he’s trying to be a decent person, all right? He’s not going to force the issue. He’s not going to push, to ask until Matt says yes. Impulsive behavior was what lost him several jobs and a fiancée, so.

_You got me instead. A bargain._

Still, Eddie would like to chat up the cute lawyer, who may or may not have insight for the paper he’s preparing about the Mayor’s office, in peace.

“I do. I’ll call you, okay? But I’ll be fine walking home; I promise.”

So Eddie nods, then remembers the guy is blind and adds, “All right, see you around.” He then kicks himself, but Matt only laughs and walks away, his cane swinging in wide arcs in front of him.

Something is tugging at Eddie’s mind, and Venom is intrigued too, but neither can really put their finger on it.

Yet.

The next evening, Eddie decides to try a stakeout of the building Daredevil disappeared into the night before. Well, he’s not sure of the exact building but he’s narrowed it down to half a block, which is a good start; if he settles to wait early enough Eddie should have some hope of seeing Daredevil come out.

Of course, it’s Daredevil who finds him first.

“Mr. Brock,” he hears behind himself.

“Eek!” Also, ow: he startled and knocked his elbow against a bit of wall. _Ow_. “Couldn't you have warned me?”

 _We didn’t hear him, Eddie._ Oh, it’s we again, as soon as it’s a fail, uh?

“Boo,” Daredevil says. “Sorry, couldn't resist.” He smiles, and his teeth are as white as they were yesterday, although less bloody. Which is probably a good thing. Eddie makes a note to ask him about his dentist, because: wow, so white, so straight.

“You’re an asshole; you know that?”

“I do.” Daredevil sits next to him, his back against the roof ledge. “So, what’s so interesting about that building you’ve been watching?”

“I don’t know, you tell me.” Daredevil tilts his head, curious. “I saw you get in there last night.”

“Uh. Looking for me?”

“Yes, actually.”

“Why?”

“I’m a reporter. I look for interesting things, and you’re interesting.”

“So I’m your job?” He pouts; he’s honest-to-god pouting.

“I _like_ my job!”

“Oh, so you like me?”

Venom is cackling in Eddie’s head.

“No!” Now Daredevil is cackling too. Eddie sighs; this is not his day. Night. Whatever. “I mean, I don’t know you. I’ve heard things; that’s all.” He can’t really mention last night’s fight and reveal himself as Venom; he’s pretty sure this guy won’t be happy with having a people-eating alien symbiote running around New York.

“I’ve heard things about you, too.” He turns his head and seems to listen, for a moment, then jumps up. “I’m needed elsewhere; nice talking to you, Mr. Brock.”

“Eddie.”

Daredevil nods. “Eddie.” Then he – holy shit – jumps off the roof to… somewhere? But when Eddie looks down he doesn’t see anyone, although he spots the fire escape that the vigilante probably used instead of turning into a bloody smear on the ground.

_We could follow him._

“Not tonight, V. We don’t want to be too eager, do we?”

_We don’t?_

“I want to interview him, build a rapport; that means trust. Tracking him won’t help with that.”

_It’s faster._

“Look, let’s just get some street interviews instead, all right? Ask people if they feel safer at night or not, make a paper out of that, and call it a day’s work.”

_Night’s work._

“Right.”

Eddie takes the higher road and refuses to react to Venom’s smartassery, and instead focuses on his job.

That’s how things go for about a week: a bit of digging around what’s happening in and around the Mayor’s office (it stinks), some night-watching in the hopes of getting in on some vigilante action either as a reporter or as Venom (symbiote’s gotta eat, you know? Okay, so no more people eating for now, _Fine, Eddie_ ), walking around the city to just get a feel for it again. He sees Nelson and Murdock once, leaving the courthouse; Matt has somehow acquired a black eye. Walked into a door, he says; Foggy rolls his eyes but he doesn’t seem worried, so Eddie isn’t. He reminds Matt he still owes him a quarter-and-coffee after the laundromat, and when he leaves them to go to the Bulletin he’s got a(n unofficial, but still) coffee date for Sunday.

“Still got it,” he says to himself. Well, not just himself.

Venom only complains about being hungry as its only answer.

On Friday, he meets with Karen for a working lunch like real professionals. Okay, a sandwich at a place called Nelson’s Meats, but it still counts.

They share their findings, and between themselves they can agree it’s starting to smell like overripe manure.

“There's more,” she tells him, “but nothing I can tell you; they’re clients. I’ve given them your card and said you were writing an article about this, so they may or may not call you.”

“All right, thanks.” _She’s pretty_ , V says. “That’s going to be very useful, I’m sure.”

“You can also try to get in touch with Jessica Jones; I think she knows people in the Mayor’s office.”

“Hm. If I can get within half a block of her; so far she’s made it pretty clear she doesn’t want to chat.”

Karen laughed, and Eddie decides she isn’t laughing _at_ him. “She doesn’t make herself easy to approach, that’s true.”

“Yeah, I think Daredevil is a better bet. Seems friendlier.”

Karen chokes on her water. “ _Friendlier?_ Daredevil?”

“Yeah, he keeps sneaking up on me at night.” At least he’s never caught him with Venom or changing appearances; Eddie doesn’t need Mr. Mask after him. Plus he likes Daredevil; he wouldn't want to hurt him and the guy doesn’t seem super-powered, at least not Captain America-style. “He goes ‘boo’ and everything.”

She looks redder and redder. “Boo.”

“Yeah. Hey, you know him, right? I mean,” he adds when her eyes widen, “you’ve worked with him, yes? On the Fisk case.”

“Oh! Oh, yes, we’ve, uh, cooperated. But I don’t know _know_ him.”

_She’s lying._

“Sure. Okay, I’ll look up that connection you mentioned and I’ll let you know what I find.”

She nods and stands up, gathering her files. “I hope our client will call you; we need to get to the bottom of this and since I’m working for Nelson and Murdock, I can’t really write the article myself. Good luck with your vigilante assignment, too!”

She winks and waves, and Eddie shakes her head. There’s something she won’t tell about Daredevil, and now he’s curious. Hopefully the man himself will appear with answers, for once. Eddie’s full of questions and he _wants_ answers.

Instead of answers, that very night, he ends up with an armful of injured vigilante. Eddie’s chilling on a roof ledge after putting the fear of god or at least alien para… _symbiotes_ into a wannabe robber, when there’s a crash behind him and he turns to find Daredevil in the flesh, righting himself from a clearly botched landing. The corrugated iron is shaky under his feet and Eddie catches him just before he kisses the roof. Violently.

“Well, at least you didn’t sneak up on me this time.”

“Boo,” says the idiot. He’s grinning, and his teeth are dark with blood once again.

“You’re hurt.”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

Eddie helps him sit down against the ledge, as support. “Where are you hurt?”

“Were you…” He grimaces, but pushes on. “Were you waiting for me?”

“No.” _Liar_. “Where are you hurt?”

“It’s nothing, I’ll just… get home, couple stitches. Right as rain… in the morning.”

“Uh huh.” Eddie finally spots the gash on his thigh; it looks like it’s bleeding a lot, but not gushing: not an artery. Oh, and another cut right above his hip, great. “Where’s home?”

“Aw, we haven’t even…” His jaw moves. “…had dinner, or something, first.”

“Yet.” See? Eddie can be all chivalry and responsibility. “But before I see your etchings, as the saying goes, I’d like to see to your stabbing.”

Daredevil starts to laugh then folds over, hand on his side. “Ow,” he finally says. “More of a slashing, but I’ve had worse.”

This isn’t exactly reassuring, although Eddie’s read and heard enough about the guy to know he’s indeed had much, much worse. Word on the street says he got caught under a collapsing building, and how anyone can survive that is beyond Eddie. Not beyond Mr. Dark, Mysterious, and Bleeding, however. “I’ll take you to your place.”

“No.”

“What, you don’t trust me to keep your address a secret?”

“You’re… a reporter.”

“Among other things, yes. C’mon, man.” Eddie slides his arms under Daredevil and picks him up, bridal style.

Aaand now he’s got a wildcat in his arms, spitting fire and clawing at him; at least he doesn’t seem to notice how Eddie can carry him _very_ easily. “Let me down!”

“Nope.” The guy is squirming and trying to get Eddie to drop him, which: not gonna happen. _We can hold him better than that._ Yeah, but that would freak him out even more.

“If you don’t…” Daredevil pants. “I’ll hurt you. Don’t want to… but I will!”

“Look, don’t give me your address; just tell me… blue tower, or red sign over there?”

Daredevil stops moving. “Over where?”

Over the big, red, flashing sign three blocks down; how can he miss it? “My hands are pretty busy right now; can’t you see it?”

“Let me down and you can point.”

“I don’t need to point; are you colorblind?”

Mr. Mask is suspiciously silent for a moment. “Yeah,” he finally says. A glaring lie.

“Right. Well, I’ll take you to my place, then. I’m warning you, it’s not great.”

He gets an elbow in the gut for all answer and Venom snaps in his head; Eddie barely manages to keep looking human. “Okay, I’m going to do a thing, and, uh. I’ll explain later, okay?” He finally lets Venom extend tendrils all around Daredevil to secure him, which makes him freeze then try again to escape.

“What – let me – that was _you_?”

“Kind of. Now hold on and enjoy the ride.”

Venom comes out fully, and in a few long jumps he gets to his own roof, then the alley behind the building. Venom recedes enough that he can come in through the front door like a guy helping out his drunk buddy, hauls them into the elevator, and realizes Daredevil is too quiet. “You all right?”

Given the way he slides down the elevator wall, no. Eddie picks him up again and rushes to his apartment, kicking the door open and laying Daredevil down on – not the couch, it’s covered with crap; floor it is. He’s fainted, shit. Shit shit shit, Eddie’s not a doctor; he did first aid training years ago but… _shit_. At least the man’s still breathing fine; that’s a good start. Right?

First, the mask has to go; he’ll check the eyes and then – what the hell?

The woolen mask drops from his hand.

“Matt!?”

Eddie’s panicking. He’s not sure whether it’s because of the guy bleeding out on his floor, or because the cute laundromat lawyer is in fact also a vigilante with a great ass, but he’s really not having a good time right now.

“V, think you can go in and… fix him?” Venom’s good at fixing human bodies, right?

But then someone crashes through his window – landlady’s going to love that – and kicks him away from Matt.

“Touch him again and I’ll end you, asshole.” There is absolutely no hint of exaggeration in Jessica Jones’s voice.

Eddie sorts out his limbs and gets up, rubbing his head. “Ow! You pack a punch, you know?”

She glares at him before kneeling by Matt’s side, checking he’s still breathing, and putting his mask back on. “And you pack something else. I don’t care; I’ll still tear you and that… thing a new one if you take one more step in his direction.”

He believes her, or at least her intent. Still, she’s strong, but she can’t be Venom-strong, right? “Look, I’m not going to hurt him; I just… I brought him here to help.”

“How’s that going?” He grimaces. “She finishes her once-over and looks up. “First-aid kit?”

“Yeah, about that.” Her glare intensifies. “Uh, I don’t have one. Don’t really need it?” Yes, fine, he should have thought about that before bringing Matt here, but Matt wouldn't say where he lives, and – Eddie’s pretty sure she doesn’t give a damn about any of it. “Maybe I can…?” But as soon as he holds out a hand she steps over Matt and makes as if to punch him, so he backs off, hands up. “Yeah, all right.”

“What are you waiting for? Go buy a kit right now.”

“Uh, right.” She’s not going to let him Venom-up Matt, and they don’t have all the time in the world. With one last look at Matt’s slack face – well, mouth, that’s all he can see – Eddie leaves and runs to the closest 24/7 pharmacy.

When he gets back, his apartment is of course empty; all that’s left is blood on the floor and glass shards in front of the window.

_We could track them, Eddie._

“Probably not a good idea,” even if he wants to. But Eddie’s learning to rein in at least some of his impulses.

With a sigh, he picks up a broom and a mop, and gets to work.

Of course, there’s no news for most of the weekend, and Eddie doesn’t think he can just call Matt. He leaves a message on Karen’s phone, tells her he’s learned interesting things, but she doesn’t take the bait either. He doesn’t mention the Mayor’s office, and he suspects that’s all she’ll reply to. If she knows who Daredevil really is… but he doesn’t want to ask about Matt outright.

So Eddie takes a stroll out in the streets on Saturday night, but he doubts the guy’s ready for a spot of vigilantism given the state he was in not even a day earlier, so he doesn’t stay out long. He gets back home, steps around the bloodstain on the floor, and settles on the beaten-up couch that came with the apartment to at least get some work done. He boarded up the broken window and the place is even darker and gloomier, if it were possible.

_We could go out again._

“Nah, I’m good.”

_I could eat._

“You could always eat.”

Eddie sighs. He’s restless, and he wants to know if Matt is okay, and then he wants to ask all the questions. Well, no, mostly he wants the answers, but he’s pretty sure it’s not going to be easy to get them. He opens his laptop and tries to focus on an article about a nail salon mafia, because however shitty his apartment is, he’s still got to pay the rent.

But Eddie is not only a reporter, a motorcycle lover (he really, really wants to buy a new bike), or an alien symbiote host, no. He’s also a sucker for mysteries, intrigue, and a great ass. So, when Sunday comes, he shaves really close, puts on his nicest shirt, and goes to the coffee shop where he and Matt are supposed to meet. He doesn’t really think the date is still on, but he’s not going to take the risk of missing it, just in case.

And lo and behold…

“Fancy seeing you here,” Eddie says. Matt is sitting at a table already, listening to something on his phone and coffee in hand. He looks pale, and the black eye he had early in the week has turned greenish yellow already.

“We need to talk.” Oh well, hello to you too. Matt takes his earbud out and pushes his chair away from the table. “Not here.”

“What’s wrong with here? I could use a coffee.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know why.”

Yeah, fine, not the most private place, but still. “Look, let me get a coffee first, okay?” He points at Matt’s, then berates himself because the guy is blind, then rolls his eyes because _the guy_ is also Daredevil. “Want another one?”

“No.”

“Fine. Be right back.” Eddie looks at what’s written on Matt’s cup before heading for the counter, and gets him the same thing. Matt looks pissed, but he still takes the cup after unfolding his cane. “Know any quiet place for a talk?”

Matt tilts his head. “A church?”

“No way.” What’s next, confession? Exorcism? Oh shit, that’s the plan, right? “Throwing holy water at me won’t make Venom leave, you know. C’mon, let’s go sit on a pier; it’s close enough.”

“I got a cane, but I’m not your gran.”

“Hey, I remember how you looked the other night.”

“I’m fine.”

“Yeah, you also said that, back then.”

Matt’s jaw works above his scarf, but he keeps quiet until they reach an empty bench. Eddie doesn’t offer his arm, and Matt doesn’t ask. His fingertips are red on the cup, and Eddie wonders why he’s not wearing gloves. He looks cold, frankly, and he doesn’t have an alien inside to keep him warm.

Once they’re sitting, Matt folds his cane again and sips some coffee. For a guy who came to talk, he’s pretty uncooperative.

“So,” Eddie starts. “Daredevil, uh.”

“You have questions. Everybody always has questions.” And doesn’t he sound bitter about it, too.

“Yeah. For a start, how? You’re blind!”

“ _You eat people!_ ” Matt hisses like a very angry cat, hackles up and a hand fisted around the cane like one of his batons. Eddie’s not sure the cane is strong enough in the face of Matt’s fury.

“Well, I… yeah, sometimes we do.”

“We?”

“It’s a long story.”

“I have time.”

“What about your story?”

“I’m not telling you anything.”

“That’s not how it works, Matt.”

“You’re a reporter.”

“I’m not going to out you, and you know it. Karen knows too, right? Writing articles doesn’t mean we’re going to out you.”

“She’s a friend.”

“Ouch.”

“You carried me to your place _against my will_.”

“And Jessica Jones herself came to your rescue! Anyway, I wasn’t going to let you bleed out on that roof.” _He’s annoying._ “No, V, he’s upset.”

“V? Who’s upset?”

“You.”

“I’m not –”

“Just… shut up and let me tell my piece, okay?” Build trust. They’re going to need it, if they’re ever going to move forward. Eddie’s trying to resign himself to the fact that his little fantasies of hooking up with the cute laundromat guy aren’t ever going to come true, but he can still learn things, make allies if not friends. Right?

So… he talks. About Anne, about going too far and losing her trust, about losing everything, about the Life Foundation. He talks about Venom and rebuilding his life, and even his attempts to be part of Anne and Dan’s relationship.

“He’s a really decent guy, you know? And he was willing to try something, so she could be with the both of us. But with Venom in the equation… it was too much. So I left San Francisco and came back here.”

“And now you eat people in my city.”

Eddie’s starting to reconsider his stance on nice butts if they come with such a stubborn personality. “We’ve only eaten one guy here, and he was not a good guy.”

“So _you_ decide who deserves to be food, and who doesn’t?”

“Like you decide who’s going to be maimed for life after you’re through with them? It’s not like you have any moral ground here.”

“I try to get them to a trial, to the law. I’m not always successful, but that’s my goal.”

“Well, good for you. We’re not busy being a lawyer by day and a vigilante by night, you know.”

“So what were you doing at the docks?”

“Following a trail. I told you, I’m a reporter; that’s what I do.”

“Jess called you a shit-stirrer.”

“Yeah, that too. I get into trouble because of it.”

“I bet.” Matt turns his head a little, almost as if he were looking at Eddie. “You know, she also calls me that.”

“You get into trouble a lot, too?”

And right then and there, Matt finally smiles. “Like you wouldn't believe.”

“Oh, I can, trust me.” Eddie grins. “Look at us, having coffee and chatting about our jobs. It’s a date, after all.”

“Don’t push it, Brock.”

“Oh, so it’s _Brock_ now, uh?”

“I don’t think I’ve been introduced to…” He waves a hand in front of Eddie. “All of you.”

“Yeah, we can’t really do that here; too many people around.”

“I’m still not okay with the people-eating thing.”

“Jeez, it was once.”

“In New York.”

“Fine, once _in_ _New York_. You can try to convince Venom to stop, but I can already tell you it’s not going to work.”

“I’d like to make the attempt, though. I’m a lawyer; I’m good with arguments.”

Eddie grins. “Don’t annoy V too much or _you’ll_ get eaten.”

“I’ll do my best.” This is not very reassuring, but then Matt takes a deep breath and quickly says, “I live three blocks from here. If you want.” Then he stops speaking and it looks like he’s stopped breathing, too.

“You sure?” Eddie doubts they’re at the show-me-your-etchings stage already.

“Your, uh, partner can come out there.” Matt's curious, understandably.

“All right. Will you tell me your story, too?”

“Eh, maybe.” Damn, his teeth are still very white, and his smile is still really cute.

And now, Eddie isn’t wearing a shitty blanket like a toga while stuffing dirty socks in a washer. Progress. “Lead the way, then.”

“You’re letting the blind man guide you?”

“I’m a rebel, Mr. Lawyer.”

Matt stands up and reaches out for Eddie’s arm, and they leave the pier behind them. As they walk, Matt tells him about himself – the regular bits, some of which Eddie already found out about from his research: the boxer dad, the accident, Columbia. It’s a wild ride already, and Eddie can’t wait to know the secret bits in-between.

The secret bits will have to wait, for now. It’s a bit frustrating, but Matt’s still a bit wary about the reporter thing; maybe Eddie shouldn’t have mentioned the little pieces he’s doing about local vigilantes. Still, the senses-on-steroids Matt’s got… that explains a lot. Not everything, but a lot. It’s also rather intriguing, but Eddie knows when to ask questions and when to stop for a while. Well, the serious questions, anyway.

“So,” he says. “Supersenses and everything, fine. So how come _that’s_ the kind of beer you have in your fridge?” He holds up his bottle. “You can tell from the label – well, okay, you can’t see the label. But trust me, it’s tacky and cheap, and so is the beer.”

“That’s just it; it’s cheap.” Matt lifts his own beer to his mouth, and Eddie doesn’t try to hide he’s looking at Matt’s lips. Matt can’t see the label, therefore he can’t see the ogling either: Eddie’s not above taking advantage.

“You’re a lawyer; you can afford something better, right?”

“I don’t make much: we take a lot of pro bono cases and I have…” He waves a hand. “Expenses.”

“Expenses?”

“Loans, my gear… you can imagine. And it reminds me of the kind of beer my dad would drink, or that Foggy and I would buy when we were students. It’s not really about the taste, you know?”

“Yeah.” He gets it; he really does. “But you can’t be all hair shirt, all the time, right?”

Matt almost spits out his bear. “ _Hair shirt?_ ”

“Yeah, I mean, cheap beer, pro bono cases, getting beaten up at night… what do you do for fun?”

“I like my job.”

“And getting beaten up?”

Matt smiles, a little bit dangerous. Eddie likes it. “I’m generally not the one who gets beaten up.”

“You were, the other night.”

“You should have seen the other guys.”

“What did they look like? Wait, no, don’t answer that question.” Eddie rolls his eyes; he walked straight into that one. “If they were worse off than you, are they even alive?”

“The police got to them in time; they’re fine. In jail, but alive.” He leans forward, a bit gingerly, to put his bottle on the coffee table, and turns to Eddie. His eyes are still hidden behind his glasses, and Eddie can see his own face reflected in them. That’s not really what he wants to look at right now, but… baby steps. “About the other night,” Matt says.

“Yeah?” Eddie sets his own bottle on the table too.

“I should thank you. You wanted to help me, and I appreciate that.”

“Your lady friend didn’t.”

“Yeah, she told me she’d followed you.”

“And then kidnapped you.”

“Well, she’d just seen your other half carry me around the city for some mysterious and possibly nefarious reasons; she was worried.” Matt paused. “Don’t let her know I said that.”

“That she was worried? All right.” Eddie looks at the bruise on Matt’s face, the way he’s moving like he’s still in pain. “You know, I could have, um. I could have healed you.”

“She said you didn’t even have a first aid kit.”

“To be fair, I don’t really need one now. I thought, you know. Venom, uh… we can heal pretty quickly from most things.”

“I don’t have your symbiote.”

“No, but…”

Venom’s head appears over Eddie’s shoulder. “My host likes you.”

Matt’s hands have curled into fists, but he relaxes them and Eddie breathes out. He doesn’t want Matt to be scared of Venom, but… He can understand, really. He’s been there. “Your name is Venom, right?”

“We are Venom, yes.”

“Then thank you, Venom. But please stop eating people in my city.”

“What, do you think you can stop us?”

Shit, no, that’s not the way this conversation is supposed to go. “I told you it’s… frowned upon, here on Earth.”

“Yes, yes, I remember.” Venom extends further, its head only a few inches from Matt, who doesn’t budge. “This one looks edible.”

“V…”

But Matt cuts him off. “So now you want to eat me? I’m a bit confused; do you want to help me, to heal me, to eat me?”

“My host wants to fuck you.”

“ _V!!_ ”

“I know,” Matt replies, cool as a cucumber.

“You – wait, how?”

“I can sense your body’s reaction around me. Now it’s a bit confusing, because I can tell where Venom is, but everything is… strange. Temperature, the lack of heartbeat… and it’s all mixed up with your own tells. I can’t pinpoint who ends where.”

“We’re one,” Venom says. “And we’re two.”

“Yeah, it’s a bit of a head trip. Took me a while to wrap my brain around it.”

“I can imagine.” Matt’s head moves slightly, left to right, as if he’s trying to follow a sound but it keeps evading him. “Can I touch you?”

“Yes,” Venom says. “Touch us.”

Matt holds out a hand and a tendril comes to meet it. Venom’s head recedes into Eddie and they fully turn into Venom themselves, the tendril shifting into Venom’s hand.

“Oh,” Matt whispers. “That’s… different.”

“We are not of your world.”

“Yeah,” he breathes out. He looks entranced, running his fingers at first carefully then with wider, more curious movements over Venom’s skin. Well, ‘skin.’ For want of a better word.

“Are you scared of us?”

“I’d rather you didn’t eat me, but – no. Not scared.”

“Good.” They send more tendrils, thin and delicate, to slither around Matt’s hand and wrist; one slides under his shirt and he shivers, but doesn’t retreat, no. He’s leaning into it, smiling a little, giggling when another tendril joins the first and finds the crook of his elbow.

“Tickles!”

“You tried to fight us, that night out on the docks.”

“I didn’t know what you were doing. And you ate that guy.” Venom tighten their grip on Matt’s other arm; if he wants to run he can’t now. They’re tempted to cover him entirely, subsume him into themselves, let him feel their strength. Not quite eating; they’d release him afterwards. Eddie says no, however, so they loosen their hold.

“We didn’t eat you.” Venom’s tongue loll out, helping them smell the air around them. There’s a taste of human blood around Matt. “We could heal you, if you wanted. You are still hurt.”

“I’ll be fine.” Matt turns his head up; he can probably tell Venom is much taller than Eddie. “How can you heal people?”

“I can leave my host, for a short while. I can get into you and heal you.” They send another thin limb to wrap around his glasses and gently, delicately, take them off and set them on the coffee table. Matt’s eyes are wide, bright. Unfocused. “I could give you your sight again.”

And that’s what breaks the spell.

Matt tears himself away from Venom and jumps back to stand as far away as he can without actually leaving his apartment. “I’m not a charity case.”

“We don’t mean…”

Venom retracts into Eddie. “It’s not like that. Venom just heals everything; if your eyes don’t work then it’s going to fix them too. Unless you say no. And now we know you don’t want that, we won’t. Promise.”

“A promise? Not enough. Don’t ever – don’t ever try to… do that. Get into me and, and, _fix_ me.”

“I just wanted to help you, the other night.”

“Yeah, well, I’m glad you didn’t have to.” And _now_ , Matt looks terrified. Superstrong, people-eating alien? Nope. Now, talking about healing? Yes. It can’t just be about seeing again, can it?

“What is it, really? Do you find it creepy, the idea of Venom being in you?”

“It’s not a comfortable thought, but no. I just don’t want to be fixed. I’m not broken; I’m not something to pity.”

“I don’t pity you. We don’t.” _It’s the eyes,_ V says. “So what is it, then?”

Matt is still breathing fast from his burst of adrenaline; but it looks like he’s calming down. “It’s… everything else. Fix me? As in, bring me to human-normal?”

“Uh… normal as in alive and healthy, yeah? If you’re injured…”

“You can’t do that. You can’t take my senses away from me, you can’t destroy me like that. You can’t! I’d rather die; I…” He shakes his head. “Don’t. Don’t ever.”

“Okay, I get it.” Well, not really, and if Eddie’s crossing fingers in his back he hopes Matt can’t sense it. Because yeah, if they can save him, then they will; Eddie will just have to count on Venom to be careful about what it repairs. “No fixing the eyes or the senses.”

“I mean it; I don’t really know how they work and I don’t know what would affect them. They just are, and I can’t – they’re me. They’re what allows me to be me, and to do what I do. If I lose them…”

“Right.”

“It happened before, after an injury; my hearing was all shot and I couldn't… if it hadn’t come back, I don’t know what I’d have done.”

Matt comes back to the couch after that, grabs his bottle and drains it, but the mood has changed. He’s still on edge, and Eddie knows he should go, let him regroup.

“I didn’t want to scare you. I know people are scared of us, but usually it’s more because of the teeth, not the… healing thing.”

“It’s fine.”

Eddie wonders if that’s his favorite word. “We promise not to eat or heal you, okay?”

Ah, finally, the smile is back. “It’ll do. For now.”

“Progress! Okay, so I guess this went better than it could have, right?” No etchings were shown, but it might still happen in the future. Hopefully. “So uh, this counts as a date, yeah?”

“I got to touch your little friend, so I guess it does.”

“ _Little!?_ ”

“Well, I’m blind; it’s… hard to say. Quite hard.”

Eddie blinks. Jeez, he wasn't expecting that at all. “…so all it takes is a promise of not eating or non-consensually healing you, and it’s innuendo time?”

Aw, the corner of his eyes crinkle when his smile widens. _You’re so gone, Eddie._ Yes, he’s aware. “It’s a good start, don’t you think?”

“Uh.” Eddie licks his lips. “Yeah.”

But then someone screams outside, and the spell is broken. Eddie goes from considering a kiss to jumping to his feet, but Matt stops him with a hand on his chest. “It’s all right, she just got scared when her kid ran away. They're both fine.”

“You heard all that?”

Matt hums.

“Wow.” He takes Matt’s hand in his, and squeezes it. “I should go,” he says. Matt may not be scared of Venom like most people, but he still probably needs time to process; _Eddie_ needs time to process, and he’s been living with Venom for over a year. Also, if he stays, he might fall a bit more for the guy, and it’s just way too much, way too soon. He doesn’t trust himself not to fall into bed with him before Matt is fully comfortable around Venom, and before Eddie himself knows more about Matt; this whole thing has the potential to be a very bad idea. What if they end up fighting and – Venom is so strong, and Eddie doesn’t want to know what could happen. He won’t risk it. Better take their time.

Matt’s low voice cuts into his thoughts. “I can almost hear you thinking.”

“They’re good thoughts; I promise.”

“You promise a lot. Do you keep them all?”

“I try to.” Doesn’t always succeed, though.

“Well, that’s a good start. You take care, okay? You’ll see me around.”

“I hope so.”

Eddie feels on top of the world as he leaves Matt’s building and goes back to his own apartment. He’s got work to do, and anything he can find in this Mayor’s office investigation will be one more good reason to see Matt. Eddie’s got goals.

They keep in touch during the week; Matt leaves him a few voice messages – _I told Jess not to punch Venom out of you_ , and _Listened to your work on the Life Foundation; I’d like to know what else you found that couldn’t be made public_. Eddie grins at himself in the mirror as he shaves, because that last one almost sounds like Matt’s asking him out. Sort of. He answers things like, _I’ll tell you over a better beer than what’s in your fridge_ , and _Your client called me and is willing to talk as long as it doesn’t compromise her case_.

So yes, Eddie’s hoping for a date.

But he doesn’t want to rush things, and there’s this investigation that he needs to see to the end; Ms. Alawi’s story, he thinks, will help get to the bottom of it. She was threatened by Trench Real Estate lawyers but refused to sell her little corner shop, and since then she’s faced a series of suspicious setbacks: a dumpster fire that almost torched the shop, a shootout in front of it, a car that rammed her store window in some sort of freak accident, power failures that shorted out the freezers so that a lot of her stock was spoiled… yeah, it doesn’t take big brains to understand what is really happening. She isn’t the only one in the area Trench is targeting – about four blocks around Hell’s Kitchen – far from it, but she’s the one behind the pushback. She’s created a committee to defend their rights; she was the one to get in touch with Nelson and Murdock, and now she’s the one going to the press with way more details than Eddie had managed to find by himself.

Trench Real Estate covers their official trail well enough, but now? Now, he’s got video of the goons who came to threaten Mr. Schultz, because Mr. Schultz has a hidden camera that he didn't tell the NYPD about; the Caldiños, who are undocumented, also had interesting things to say about the kind of people Trench Real Estate hires. He calls Karen and sends the info that she didn’t have yet, and she tells him about a few more connections between Trench and the Mayor’s office.

It’s obvious, really: they’re trying to buy out an area for redevelopment, and since the legal, above-board way didn't convince everyone to sell, they’ve changed tactics. The Mayor will get a share of the profit and a huge boost in the public eye for his gentrification efforts, all while tightening his links with corrupt NYPD officers who participate in the threat squad. They’re looking for quicker promotion and possibly other benefits down the line; Karen says it’s the kind of thing Fisk tried to do before, and she’s looking up who’s really behind Trench Real Estate.

Eddie, in the meantime, considers taking action himself: he knows Daredevil has stopped some of the offenders, but mobsters still go around those four blocks every night when they’re not racketeering people in broad daylight, and Matt can’t always be right there when something bad happens. Eddie thinks about telling Matt about his plans, of course.

He doesn’t.

It took a while to be really comfortable with having an alien share his body, and with being Venom at the same time. It’s like three entities sharing the same space: V, Eddie, and Venom, who are both of them and neither. Eddie tries not to think about it too hard, because it just makes his head hurt. It doesn’t help that the alien goo and their symbiotic union share the same name, either, but it is what it is.

It’s a power trip; it’s terrifying and exciting. It makes his life way more complicated, and way easier too. Sure, he’s got to try and rein in some of Venom’s impulses, and it’s not like Eddie himself is a poster child for good self-control, but at least he’s more aware of the dos and don’ts of being _totally_ human: yep, nothing to see here, nothing out of the ordinary, run along please.

Now, they work well together; Venom knows when to let Eddie take the lead, and Eddie has learned to have Venom’s voice in his thoughts. He’s never alone, which is sometimes nice and sometimes not. In return, they get to enjoy the perks of life on earth, and indulge in occasional violence when it’s either that or let other humans suffer. Look, it’s more morally gray than morally great; Eddie’s well aware, but they worked out a compromise, and it works.

It’s true that it makes Eddie’s personal life a bit complicated, as his return to New York can attest, but things are looking up now as far as his love life is concerned. Right? Matt seems to be okay with Venom, if not all of Venom’s activities. But that’s what relationships are: you make compromises, yeah? Eddie’s feeling pretty optimistic about it.

Anyway, it’s not like they can separate, now. Venom needs a host, and Eddie would probably die soon after separation. Dan confirmed his heart is in bad shape, and Eddie’s also noticed that he’s so used to having Venom onboard now that he’s not really careful in his day-to-day life; whatever happens to him – twisted ankle or bad cold, bike accident or mugging turned wrong – he knows Venom will fix it, or even prevent it. But it only works as long as Venom’s along for the ride, of course.

Which is why Eddie is reconsidering his life choices, at the moment.

He sneaked into the abandoned building where he found out Trench and Co were holding meetings, but of course it’s not an abandoned building; it only looks like one. The inside is all sleek and high-tech, with cameras and guards everywhere: it’s not just a place for discreet meetings. It’s their base of operations, complete with weapons store and rooms filled with neatly stacked folders and shiny computers, as he’s just seen after breaking a padlock and getting in. It only _pretends_ to be a shabby, empty low-rise slated for demolition.

And they’ve let him make his way to a big basement room, no window, no nothing, so now he’s caught like a rat. As soon as he stepped in, doors closed behind him, and a bunch of goons armed to the teeth came in. And yeah, that would have been fine, if it hadn’t been for the hostages.

They have hostages.

As soon as he goes full Venom, they’re going to shoot them; it’s pretty clear. Eddie’s fucked up, big time. He has no idea what to do that wouldn't end up with a lot of dead people, people he’s promised he’d help. Ms. Alawi, Mr. Schultz, the Caldiños kids, and a dozen other people are here, looking at him with a mixture of surprise and terror on their faces. Yeah, he can relate. Venom is restless in his head, but keeping hidden for now. Eddie’s not sure how long the standoff can last; they could shoot him but the minute he gets back up things will get ugly.

They’re going to die, and it will be his fault. They’re good people; they’ve done nothing wrong, and they’re going to pay with their lives because they chose to stand up to fight for their homes. Eddie’s not sure he can live with that; he’s in fact not sure he should. It wouldn't be fair to them. But what can he do?

He’s coming up blank.

That's when the lights cut off, and the screaming starts.

Venom don’t mind the dark; they let it hide them and rely on their other senses. They’ve got more than humans do. As soon as the lights are out, Venom’s tendrils come out to find the terrified hostages and shove them away from the weapons; then they focus on the guns. It’s noisy, but Venom can navigate the dark using temperatures and that makes it easy to differentiate between warm humans, slightly above room-temperature, hand-held, metal objects, the cool walls, or the cold dirt floor. There’s the taste of terror in the air, coating Venom’s tongue. They like it.

It’s an exhilarating few minutes, but it’s soon over; Eddie’s human friends are (mostly) safe or at least they’ll be able to leave, so Venom tear the door off its hinges and stalk out. There are more screams and the sounds of fighting further up, so they go investigate. They could eat; there’s plenty of Eddie-approved snacks in here, and while they’ve refrained around the humans Eddie likes, now they can’t see Venom eat.

But when they get to the large, underground parking lot, Venom’s priorities change.

The ceiling lights are down, but several cars have their headlights on, and the firefight is brutal. And all of that against one man. Eddie’s guy, the ticklish lawyer who wears a mask at night. What is he doing here?

Venom stand up to their full height and throw a car at a small man with a big gun who’s aiming at Matt. This makes the others look in Venom’s direction, and they can feel the fear coming out of their pores. Venom lick their lips, and jump into the fray.

“I don’t need your help!”

Ah, Eddie’s guy. Predictable. “You are not bullet proof.” Case in point: they throw a shield between Daredevil and a hail of bullets, just in time.

Not that it makes a difference. “Neither are the people they’ve kidnapped!” He snaps, before jumping from a car’s hood to Venom’s shoulder and launching himself at three other men before they can reload.

Ah, about that… Well, the explanation will be Eddie’s problem. “They are safe.”

“Safe?” Matt drops the last man he’s been pummeling. “As long as some of these men can move… No!” Venom sigh and stop in their tracks. “Don’t eat people.” He crouches behind cars and joins Venom again. “We must get them out. You know where they are; go!”

“Eddie doesn’t want to leave you here.”

“Not my first rodeo, buddy. I’ll keep them occupied; now go!”

“We will.” But not as Venom; they’re too visible, so they retract into Eddie.

“Surprise,” Eddie says.

Matt’s head twitches. “Are _you_ bulletproof?”

“I’ll be fine, but Venom would draw their attention too much and they’d know what we’re doing.” The truck they’re hiding behind shakes from the force of the gunfire, but for now they’re too afraid of Venom to come closer or try to encircle them. It’s not going to last.

“I don’t like this.”

Yeah. Well, there’s more he won’t like, but that’s for later. “Me neither, but we don’t want the hostages to have a heart attack when they see Venom, right?”

Matt sighs. “Right. Now go!”

Eddie crawls away in one direction while Matt jumps up from behind the truck in another, and Eddie’s heart is in his mouth, but he's got a job to do, and he’s going to do it. He tries not to think about Matt, but at least Matt _chose_ to come here and risk his life, contrary to the hostages that Eddie almost killed, however indirectly. He has a duty to them first, and he’ll come back for Matt afterwards.

When he comes back to the parking lot, fighting’s still happening. Eddie lets Venom take over, mowing through the remaining mooks like it’s a stroll in the park. It’s short, but satisfying; and seeing them swallow a man whole certainly helps make things quicker. Soon enough, those who are left are those who can’t run away but wish they could. Or aren’t in any state to wish for anything.

Eddie is back in control, and now everything is dead silent. Well, not quite: he can spot a few goons groaning on the floor, some with visibly broken limbs, but no one tries to stop him when he walks across the headlight beams. Eddie’s an obvious target and not a tall alien any longer, but they just don’t give a damn. Fine, he’ll take it. The hostages are outside and safe, the cops are probably already on their way, and he needs to find Matt before they get here.

But there’s no Matt. Signs of him, yes: in the dented cars, the obviously concussed guys, but the man himself? Nope.

He has to be somewhere, though.

Unless… no.

Eddie steps over some more bodies, some he’s pretty sure faced Venom and not Daredevil given the state they’re in, and gets back to where he last saw Matt. There’s no more sign of him, but he remembers in which direction he went, so he goes the other way. That had been the plan. One car in particular is riddled with bullet holes, so Eddie walks around it, looking for clues.

There are none.

_Up._

“V?”

_He went up._

Eddie looks up and sees nothing and no one, but Venom jerks Eddie’s head so he faces stairs. He gets closer and sees blood on the handrail; it’s still glistening. He did go up, maybe just as Venom were clearing the basement. He’s hurt. Eddie’s got to find him. He follows the trail of blood and his heart is crawling up his throat the further up he goes, because there’s still no Matt but there sure is a whole lot of hemoglobin.

No Matt, that is, until he gets to the third floor, near a window that opens out on the fire escape, because of course. There’s a red handprint on the windowsill, and when Eddie pokes his head out he finally sees Matt, sprawled face down on the landing. Eddie scrambles out and kneels right next to him, gently shaking his shoulder first.

“Hey, you awake?”

He’s not, obviously. So Eddie gently turns him over and removes Matt’s mask, not that he knows the point of doing that. It’s not like the man’s pupils are going to tell him anything, right? But that’s what they do in the movies, so… His eyes are closed, obviously, and Matt’s hair is matted with blood and sweat; his breathing is shallow and he looks pale. Enough that Eddie notices it in the yellowish light of a distant neon, anyway. Looking him over, Eddie also finds something that looks like torn skin; maybe a piece of metal went through his stomach but it wasn’t from something sharp and neat like a knife. There’s also what looks like bullet wounds: one in the thigh and one… shit, that could be in a lung.

There are loud sirens outside, and they can’t stay here. Except that Matt needs urgent care now, but he also can’t let his identity go public; that would ruin him and his work and while they haven’t yet got as close as he’d like, Eddie knows he can’t do that to him.

Venom stand up, Matt carefully held in their arms, and they leap out and away.

Matt’s apartment is closer and has roof access, so that’s where Venom go. Once they’re in, they gently lay Matt down on the wooden floorboards, and Eddie starts by tearing off Matt’s shirt to see the wounds better. Except of course it’s really dark in here, so he flounders a bit around until he finds a switch and harsh light from a naked bulb falls on Matt. He looks even worse now, and it hits Eddie.

He’s not going to live, unless he does what he’s promised not to do.

_Are you sure, Eddie?_

“Yeah. You go in, V. Just don’t… you know.” Not the eyes, not the senses, except it would be near impossible for Venom to fix one thing or two and not everything.

He watches the black goo leak out of his arm, cover the hand he’s put over Matt’s chest, and then be absorbed. He feels empty now, suddenly horribly alone, and the terror of being forever separated from Venom grips him again. It happens every single time, but now it’s compounded by knowing he’s going to lose Matt, too. They were just getting to really know each other, and he _likes_ the guy, and –

“Ah!”

Matt’s eyes snap open and they’re shining a bright silver, a sure sign Venom’s in there somewhere.

“Hey, hey, you're good, you’re okay, you’re going to be okay.”

“Wh… I don’t…” Matt’s hand wraps around Eddie's wrist, right over his own heart, and he squeezes tight. “No, no, I don’t…” He arches against the floor like an electric current is going through him, his mouth open in a silent scream; his fingers are crushing Eddie’s wrist bones. “You promised…”

Eddie wants to cry.

But right next to his own hand, he sees it, finally: the gaping wound right under the pectoral closing out right after spitting out a deformed bullet, something moving under the skin like – oh, like a rib moving back in place. Matt moans; he’s in obvious pain and distress although Eddie’s not sure if it’s because of the healing, which seems slower than it usually is for Eddie, or the horror of having Venom move around in him. The fear of losing the senses he puts so much of his identity into, too.

“Why is it taking so long?”

The awful tear on Matt’s stomach starts to knit back too, and Eddie almost jumps out of his skin when Matt speaks. Except it’s not Matt.

“We are going slow, Eddie; we are making sure to avoid certain things.”

Matt’s face is going through all the worst feelings – distress, pain, despair, fear, powerless rage; there are tears in his eyes and Eddie can’t do anything about it. He moves his free hand to Matt’s head and brushes the hair back from his face, watching a cut on his eyebrow disappear slowly.

“Won’t even let me move,” Matt grits out. Then: “ _No!_ Don’t touch that!” He pants after yelling, and turns his head away. He’s angry at Eddie, and with reason, but it was that or death.

“I couldn't let you die.” Matt’s jaw tightens, but he doesn’t reply. “You know you would have, right? I just couldn't let you die.”

There’s a thin cord around his neck, and Eddie tugs on it: it’s a necklace. There's a little cross on it, a cheap thing like the kind Eddie had as a kid. He hasn’t prayed in decades; he’s not sure he remembers how. It probably doesn’t matter; it’s not like he believes in god anymore. But he remembers Matt’s first thought of a quiet place to go to for their talk was a church. It must mean something to him.

“I was raised Catholic,” Eddie offers.

Matt only closes his eyes tight and sobs once, curling a little around the hand that’s still holding Eddie’s wrist. Eddie wonders if Matt can hear the sound of Eddie’s heart breaking into tiny little pieces all around them. He feels like the worst human being ever, to put Matt through this. But he has no regret.

Finally, after what seems to last hours but probably not more than a few minutes, it’s over. Matt slumps back, unconscious, and Venom slithers back up Eddie’s arm.

_Done. He’ll live._

Eddie closes his eyes and breathes out. “What about…?”

_Hard to say. I tried to avoid healing everything, but this is not how I prefer to do things._

“Yeah, I know. Thanks, V.”

Eddie can feel Venom is tired; the strain of precision strike healing – and all the healing there was to do – got to it. Matt is still out of it, but his eyes are moving under the lids, and it looks like he might come awake soon. Eddie carries Matt to the couch and settles him there; he takes his boots off and covers him with the tattered afghan thrown over the back of the sofa.

Then, he waits.

Matt’s head twitches; his lips part, and after maybe a minute, his eyes snap open.

“Eddie,” he says. He sounds terrible, like his vocal cords are shredded.

“Hey, man. Uh, you thirsty?” He jumps up and almost goes to the kitchen, then changes his mind. He wants an answer first. “How are you feeling?”

“Fuck you.”

Right. He locates a sports flask, fills it, and brings it back to Matt. “There, easier to drink from, yeah?”

Matt ignores him, so Eddie sets it on the floor next to the couch.

“I’m not sorry, you know. Well, I am, but not that you’re alive. I’d do it again.”

“Go away, Brock.”

“I…”

“Go. Away.”

Okay. he’s not wanted; staying won’t help. Well, Matt sure looks like he could do with some help; Venom didn’t heal everything, but if he stays Matt will just work himself up some more and… nah. Eddie nods, still wondering whether Venom fixed Matt’s sight or not. “Alright. I’ll just… yeah. Take it easy tomorrow, okay? You know, rest, drink fluids, and everything?” He takes a few steps backwards, but he can’t look away from Matt. The man looks raw, and not only because of the scraped skin in several places.

“ _Go_.”

So, right, fine. Eddies goes. As soon as he’s outside, he tries to think of who he can warn to keep an eye on Matt; he doesn’t feel comfortable leaving him on his own or trusting him not to go to work in the morning.

Then he gets an idea.

`Hey, just saw Daredevil tonight. Guy looked pretty banged up. I know you said you didn't know know him, but maybe check up on him if you can?`

He’s pretty sure Karen (and Foggy) know full well about Matt’s side gig, but he’ll pretend he doesn’t and just hope they’ll take care of Matt, for now. Eddie got the message; he’s not wanted any more. He still has no regrets.

Karen never answers his text, and he tries to be patient. Tries being the operative word.

Anyway, over the next week Eddie’s pretty busy cajoling his landlady to replace the broken window and writing his article about his findings; after the police raided the building where the hostages were held the cat’s out of the bag, and he can go public with a lot of it. A few days later, he sees on TV that Nelson & Murdock are representing the hostages too, and there’s video of the both of them on the stairs leading up to the courthouse; Matt looks good. He’s okay. He still has the red glasses and his cane, but Eddie guesses he wouldn't suddenly tell the world he could see again if that was the case.

There are little things though – the way he tilts his head, the way his hand goes to Foggy’s elbow right away; those aren’t conscious, or at least Eddie doesn’t think so. He’s hopeful Matt’s still blind, and immediately feels like the worst asshole for thinking that thought. Then _again_ for dismissing Matt’s wishes and wishing he had his sight back. Then again because he _did_ dismiss Matt’s wishes not to have his sight back.

With a sigh, Eddie opens the new window and hops onto the fire escape. He’s feeling antsy, and losing himself in Venom seems like a perfectly good, healthy, productive option.

_We’re hungry._

Yeah. Well, tonight, Eddie doesn’t care about the details. He feels Venom envelop him and lets go.

One week, two weeks. A month.

Ellison’s happy with his articles and hires Eddie on a more permanent basis; he gets a new apartment where he can have a grown-up desk like a real boy and, even better, buys a new bike. He rides through New York and even upstate when he needs to clear his head; he doesn’t want Venom to be out and about too often. New York has its fair share of super-weirdos, but he wants to lie low for a while. There have already been reports, of course, and Ellison even tried to put him on it, but Eddie pointed out there hadn’t been any new sightings recently and that he’d rather focus on something else for now.

He should still take the article if it comes up again because then he can do some misdirection to protect Venom, but as a journalist that doesn’t sit quite right, so he does his best to think about something else. He writes about the former Mayor’s links with the mob, about the gig economy and the lives it’s destroyed, about corruption and The Man. He rides his bike, gets takeout, looks at the roofs and fire escapes at night hoping to see Daredevil.

But all he sees of him are some articles, the news, and once a suit-covered back when Eddie was at the courthouse to cover a trial. Matt’s head twitched and he left the hall right after that, so Eddie’s almost certain Matt is avoiding him. He tried to talk to Karen too when he saw her at the Bulletin, but she made extremely stilted small talk and tiptoed around everything that wasn’t weather related, so that was a bust too.

He should respect that. Eddie knows he should.

He’s never been very good at doing what he should, though.

In those strange days between Christmas and the New Year, Eddie finally gets his wish, although not quite in the way he was hoping.

It’s late evening; he’s gone out again because he’s out of beer and he’s really not feeling like doing without tonight when he sees him, jumping from one building to another.

Matt.

He’s wearing something different from the plain dark clothes and ropes that Eddie saw before; it looks more… professional, if that’s a word one can use for vigilantes, and he’s got people on his tail. He’s on the run, and when Eddie hears the gunshots, that’s it.

Venom come out, keep to the darker shadows, and they follow. The shooting comes from several directions now, and it feels like they’re herding Matt to one particular area. Venom manage to stay unseen, maybe crushing a windpipe here and there when the occasion arises, but they do it discreetly enough the other men don’t see them. Good. It doesn’t make much of a difference anyway, because in a few minutes they end up on top of a warehouse and the guns are firing from everywhere. Matt doesn’t have a choice but to go inside, so Venom will have to get in too. This looks like hunting, pure and simple; the hunters have exhausted the prey with a chase, then they’re going to corner Matt and finish him. Or at least, that’s their plan. Their plan, however, doesn’t include Venom.

Once all the men are in, Venom break a window and slither inside. They follow the sounds of fighting and finally find a large area, brightly-lit, with strange walls that look padded. They may think they’ve trapped the Devil, but they’ve also invited Venom along. They’re going to regret ever being born.

Venom stand up with their head brushing the ceiling, and the screams of terror fill the room. They echo wrong, but Venom don’t pay too much attention beyond throwing bodies left and right and making sure no bullet gets to Matt, right until a horrible noise rends the air.

Venom… Eddie… it… they?

And then nothing.

_away from my host_

_NOISE_

_escape_

_Eddie?_

_SOUNDWAVES_

_hurt_

_dying_

Eddie groans. He feels sick and empty, and everything's painful. It’s like the worst hangover, like he's already puked everything he had and then some but his body still wants to turn itself inside out.

That’s when it hits him: Venom’s not with him. He’s alone.

He blinks, rubs his face, blinks again, and he’s also either blind or in pitch darkness. It’s quiet, although even the quiet feels a bit unsettling. The nausea is getting worse. He pats the floor around him, manages to lift himself on all fours, and crawls forward – whatever forward means for now; he has no way to know anyway. He’s bound to find a wall, and from there he’ll follow the wall to a door, and just… hope for the best.

“Hey, V.” He clears his throat and tries again, louder. “V, are you around?”

Venom could be right next to him or far away, alive or… nah, it’s alive. Eddie doesn’t want to imagine Venom isn’t. But first, a door, hopefully some light, and then he’ll see again. Find Venom, join again, and they’ll be fine. Venom’s probably just still reeling from the noise, that special frequency that can… incapacitate alien goo. Temporarily. Nothing worse. Right. Anyway, that particular alien goo is _Eddie’s_ alien goo, so he’s got to find it.

But what he finds, instead, is bodies. He bumps into one, then another; they’re still breathing but clearly out for the count. However, the third he finds is dead. There’s blood all around him, and of course Eddie’s forearm landed smack in it. Ew. As he crawls around the corpse, he realizes part of a leg is missing: it was shot out. Destroyed. The guy bled to death from what was left of his leg, and Eddie’s nausea comes back full force. He retches, coughs, retches some more, but nothing but bile and spit comes up.

He pants for a moment, then starts again. He’s too shaky to try to stand, so crawling it is, and he still hasn’t reached the wall. He does reach more bodies, though, but he doesn’t check whether they’re alive or not now, not anymore. He finds strangely shaped objects too, small cones that feel like tiny electronics. He puts one in his pocket to study later, and keeps moving forward.

A door opens behind him before he gets to a wall. He’s so relieved he can see light pouring in from behind it that he doesn’t register right away that the blurry silhouette in the doorway could very well be out to get him.

“You’re alive,” Matt says.

Eddie blinks a few times and lets himself fall to the floor; his eyes are stinging from the sudden light but nothing else. Absolutely nothing else. “Hey,” he croaks. “Long time no see.”

Matt’s teeth shine white as he kneels by his side. “Your heart sounds different, without Venom. I wasn’t sure it was you.”

“Surprise.” Eddie pats the thigh closest to him, nicely firm and covered in some sort of woven Kevlar. “That’s new.”

“Not quite. Look, we can’t stay here; I called Brett – the NYPD, I mean – and they’re about to get here. Can you stand?”

“Maybe?” Probably not. “V,” he adds. “I can’t…”

“Later. We gotta go.”

Eddie wants to curl up and die right here. If V’s dead, then Eddie’s as good as dead too. He doesn’t want to escape; what would be the point? He won’t live long without Venom anyway.

But then Matt hauls him up with surprising strength and carries him out over his shoulder in a bumpy but fast jog; Eddie thinks he should be amazed, but mostly he’s grateful Matt doesn’t seem to hate his guts for now. If he’s going to die soon, then he’d like to die on good terms with people, you know? Hey, he should call Anne, tell her she’s amazing and that he hopes she’s happy.

He zones in and out of it until eventually he realizes they’re not moving anymore. They are, in fact, in Matt’s apartment. How? He can’t have carried him that far, how can…

“I got a surprise for you, too,” Matt says. And sets his palm flat on Eddie’s chest.

“What – _holy shit!!_ ”

Venom flows out of Matt and back into Eddie, and it’s fine. They’re fine. Venom’s okay; Eddie’s okay, and they’re good. Perfect. He feels great, strong; he’s on top of the world; he throws Matt’s new helmet away and grabs his head and kisses him like the world’s ending and they should go out with a bang.

Matt pulls away after a few seconds, though, and Eddie wants to kick himself. They really didn’t leave things at a point where spontaneous, enthusiastic kissing would be welcome.

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Matt gets to his feet and picks up the helmet. “I didn’t know Venom has problems with specific sounds.”

“It’s one of the few things that can knock us out.” Eddie sits up and wraps his arms around his knees. “It was pretty loud, though; why didn’t it affect you?”

“Because of this.” He waves the helmet. “I knew they were going to try and get me, and I knew who is behind this. She knows who I am, my weaknesses, but she’s cornered now. So I went to see the guy who used to make my suit from way before; I asked him for a new helmet that would protect my hearing, cut off sound after it reached a certain loudness. He tried different things and there’s no perfect solution because it will always impact my hearing, but it meant that if they tried a shock grenade or loud sounds, I’d be okay. They tried something a little different, but Melvin’s system still worked.”

“You knew it was a trap?” Wait. “You know who’s behind this?”

“Yes, and yes. Pretty sure she’s going to jail like her husband, now.” He grins. “You may have to fight Karen for the right to write that particular article for the Bulletin, though.”

“Yeah, maybe. Oh!” He remembers the strange cone he found earlier on the floor and gets it out of his jacket. It looks like something you’d put in your ear, in fact. “Did the goons also have ear protections?”

“They did. But it didn’t help them, when I broke the lights. They just shot at each other, and I knocked down the rest.”

“I don’t remember anything after the noise started.” It’s a bummer he was out; Eddie wishes he could have seen Daredevil in action.

Matt wanders off to put the helmet in a chest half-hidden in a corner of the large room, and sits down next to Eddie. “It didn’t take very long. I realized you were out pretty soon, so I was as quick as I could. I found Venom in a corner; it was in bad shape, not moving much, but I think it recognized me right away. You said it can’t live long outside a host, so I let it come inside me before I left. I needed to make sure no one else was left.” He pauses. “And shut down that noise.”

“Thank you. I know you probably didn’t want to do it, but thank you. You saved us.”

Matt turns his head to the window; the giant neon billboard flashes purple and yellow and bright white on his face. He doesn’t even blink, of course. “I didn’t want you to die.”

“But you hated… you know.”

“Yeah.” He sighs. “Having Venom in me, it’s… I don’t know how it feels for you, obviously. But feeling it spread everywhere in me, touch everything… I was terrified. I could tell my injuries were healed one by one, even old ones, but all I could think about was what I could lose.”

“And I betrayed your trust.”

Matt smiled. “That, too. I understand why you did it; I’ve done similar things. I’ve decided for other people without asking them; I… I get it. But it took me some time to accept it. It shouldn't have, but it did. I’m sorry.”

“And I’m sorry I couldn't think of another way to help.”

“Well, I don’t think there was.” Matt’s hand slides along the floor until it touches Eddie’s. “Having Venom inside, having it talk to me… I guess it’s a good reminder of why God doesn’t talk to me; I’d freak out.” He jostles Eddie’s arm. “I couldn't do what you do; I couldn't be its host 24/7.”

“But you managed for a while today. How?”

“I prayed. I went to church, talked to a sister; I asked for guidance. I meditated. And tonight, I was ready. I’m glad.”

Eddie rests his forehead on Matt’s shoulder. “Yeah. Me too.”

They don’t say anything for a long minute, their fingers brushing but not quite tangling.

“What happened, after you found V and left the room?”

“There were a few more men. Venom wanted to eat them, but I didn’t let it.”

Eddie grins and raises his head to look at Matt again. “Uh, V must have loved that.”

“I got the impression you often don’t let it, either. Venom wasn’t too impressed.”

“I bet.” Eddie wants to go back to the kissing, and he can tell Venom – who at least isn’t chanting _nailnailnail_ – is encouraging him. Venom likes Matt, too, but he’s not sure Matt is ready for anything more than some lip action with him and his resident alien paras… – _Eddie!_ – alien roommate. Bodymate? Ugh.

Venom, of course, has other ideas. Eddie’s looking at Matt’s face, and he notices his face is getting a bit darker, flushed; his breathing is changing too. He looks down at their hands and… “Whoa,” he says.

“Yeah.” Matt’s voice is tight, like he’s trying not to scream or… or, well, or moan. “Is this, uh, normal?”

“Normal?” Nothing about this is normal; normal humans aren’t in a symbiotic relationship with aliens who share their bodies, and said aliens aren’t normally… doing that. Not in Eddie’s admittedly limited experience, anyway (still a better experience than other living humans, so hah, still the expert here).

But now, his fingers, hand, wrist, are enveloped in tendrils, and those are extending to Matt’s own arm; when he twists his hand to be palm to palm with Matt it’s like electricity is running up his nerves, lighting him up from inside. It feels shockingly intimate; he can feel his hand touching Matt’s but also Matt’s touching his, and the difference in sensation, the realization he’s getting a taste of Matt’s sensitivity, is staggering.

“No, not normal. You okay?”

Matt swallows. “It’s, uh. A lot.”

“Yeah. We can stop.”

“No, it’s… it’s fine.” He grins, a bit shakily. “Really fine.”

“Oh. Good.” Eddie shifts until he’s facing Matt, never letting go of his hand; Venom deciding to take part in this is new and Eddie’s pretty sure most people would run away screaming from the idea of making out with extra alien participation, but Matt isn’t. He’s staying, his fingers tighter around Eddie’s. “I’m going to kiss you now,” Eddie says.

“A little less conversation, a little more…”

Fine. Fine, Eddie can take a hint; he uses his free hand to pull Matt’s head forward and follow on his promise, except Matt has ideas too and Eddie ends up flat on his back, covered with a heavy, overdressed vigilante and even more tendrils around them, slithering around their bodies and even under their clothes. He feels Matt’s lips on his, and his own hand combing through his – no, Matt’s – hair; it’s overwhelming and addictive at the same time.

Then Matt slides a thigh between Eddie’s and the feedback loop of sensations just wipes out all his higher brain function.

Eddie blinks at the ceiling as he tries to cool down. “Wow,” he manages.

“Uh huh.” Matt sounds about just as wrecked as Eddie feels, so that’s reassuring. Sort of.

“You alright?”

“Uh…” He pauses, taking his time to think about it. Eddie would worry if he wasn’t so wrung out. “Yeah,” Matt finally replies. “But it’s… it’s a lot. Let’s not do that every time; I wouldn’t survive it.”

Eddie grins. “Not _every_ time? So we can totally have more sex later?”

A groan is his only answer.

“Aw, is that a no?”

Matt flails a bit before rolling to his side and flopping right over Eddie. “Can’t even move.”

Eddie wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he’s pretty proud of his handiwork. He snickers.

“Uh?”

“Handiwork,” he says.

Matt huffs in his neck, but doesn’t budge.

“Not that there are lots of options with your suit.” It may be very good at protecting Matt, but it’s really not conducive to getting naked when all participants can’t even tell where they start and where they end. He did manage to reach Matt’s undershirt and Matt undid Eddie’s belt to access some particularly interesting bits, but The Venom mind-meld experience didn’t have only perks; maybe Matt is right about not doing that every time. Venom is also suspiciously quiet for now, and maybe connecting their nervous systems, or whatever else it did, also tired it out.

Eh, Eddie’ll take it; he’ll welcome a bit of special time with his very own, very disheveled, lawyer. He’s looking forward to more mutual disheveling in bed, on his bike, in the decadent shower of his new apartment, and maybe other places too.

The sky’s the limit, right?

A few days later, the Bulletin’s front page is all about Vanessa Mariana and how her bid for power was thwarted by vigilantes, lawyers, and the NYPD. Trench Real Estate went down like Union Allied, and Eddie is proud to put his name on the article that picks apart all the lies and manipulations that almost, but not quite, managed to tear down the city.

Ellison chose a nice picture of Matt and Foggy standing near a Black officer, a Detective Brett Mahoney, and he also wrote about how the small firm and the officer took down Fisk (twice) and now his wife, in order to save their community.

“You look good in that photo,” Eddie says.

Matt pokes his head out of the bathroom, toothpaste on his lips. “Not the rest of the time?” It sounds more like _‘Naht the resh of the chime?’_

“Well, right now you look like a clown makeup experiment gone wrong.” In a cute way, of course.

Matt brandishes his toothbrush threateningly before disappearing again in the room, swishing and spitting like a good boy. When he gets out again, he’s only wearing a towel around his hips, and it’s giving Eddie some… _fresh_ ideas.

“I can hear your heart picking up.” Matt doesn’t seem to mind, given the way he sashays closer. “Penny for your thoughts?”

“Pretty sure you have an inkling.”

“Ooh, an _inkling_ , eh? I thought _you_ were the writer, not me.”

“Ha ha, you’re hilarious.”

Matt bats his eyelashes and dances just out of reach when Eddie tries to grab his waist. “Oh no, you’d rather make out with the picture, right?”

“Aw, come on!” Eddie leaves his stool to catch him again, for good this time; he traps Matt against the back of the couch and mounts an assault on his neck, right under the jawline. Matt’s freshly shaved for court this morning, and Eddie knows the baby soft skin is not going to last long. He’s going to make the most of it, going to make Mr. Smart Attorney shiver, going to give him something to feel warm all over as he’s defending his client, going to…

“Oh, _ew!_ Really?”

Eddie jumps away from Matt, who blinks slow and dazed. “What the hell?”

“Hi, Jess,” Matt says once he’s found his tongue again.

“She barged in without even knocking!”

“Yeah, but she didn’t tear down the door, so there’s that.”

“It’s not my problem if you don’t lock it like normal people. Want me to kick it down instead?”

Matt laughs and pushes away from the couch, hip-checking Eddie as he walks past. “Nah, I’m good. I didn’t lock the door because I know you were coming; I didn’t want to risk it. My landlord’s not fussy, but I don’t want to push him too far.”

Eddie crosses his arms. “You didn't tell me Jessica Jones was supposed to come! I’d have prepared an interview!”

“And he didn’t tell me you’d be here, or I would have spared myself… this,” she adds with a moue and a wave in their direction. "Seriously, Murdock, can’t you hook up with normal, not possessed, not undead, not whatever-he-is people?”

Undead? Possessed? Eddie has _questions_.

“Eddie’s fine.”

“Uh huh, yeah, sure. Put on some clothes, I don’t want to see your pale butt anymore.”

“You can’t see my butt.”

“I can imagine.”

“You’re _thinking_ of my butt?”

“Ugh!” She throws the folders she was carrying on the kitchen counter. “Now I am, _thanks_.”

“It’s a very fine butt,” Eddie says. He’s ready to defend Matt’s butt’s honor.

“It’s not what you can see on the Bulletin, right?” Matt asks as he goes into the bedroom to get dressed.

“Nah, it’s your face.”

“And he looks like an ass,” Jessica mutters.

“ _Hey!_ ” Matt emerges again, still barefoot and his shirt open, but on the way to looking like a lawyer. “Braille?”

“Nah, don’t have a printer, but I taped a thumb drive inside with most of the documents so you can do it yourself. There are some pictures, but I guess Karen and your partner in crime can describe them for you.”

“Yeah, we’ll be fine. Thanks, Jess.”

She grunts. “Now go be a good little lawyer. And you,” she continues after turning to Eddie. He tries not to shiver at the ice in her glare. “I’m watching you.” Her eyes dart to Matt before coming back to bore through his. “Got it?”

“Jess, stop threatening him. I told you; he’s fine.”

“He hasn't gotten you killed yet; I guess.”

“There you go!”

She shakes her head and leaves, waving her hand above her shoulder as she goes.

“She hates my guts.”

“She hates everyone’s guts, but don’t worry; she tolerates you.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Well, she hasn’t thrown you out of the window, right?” Matt starts buttoning up his shirt. “You’re good.”

“ _Good_ , eh?”

“Maybe even better than that if you get me to court in less than twenty minutes.”

Oh, a challenge. The bike is parked down in the street, and he knows the streets like the back of his hand now. “You’re on.”

**Author's Note:**

> There is some non-con healing to save one character who had previously asked not to be saved a certain way... but it ends happily :D


End file.
